Portable pill counter



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Sept. 24, 1968 United States Patent O 3,402,827 PORTABLE PILL COUNTER Shirley 0. White, 1515 Dial Court, springend, lu. 62704 Filed May 31, 1966, Ser. No. 554,188 1o Claims. (Cl. 214-1) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A portable pill counter having replaceable bottom portions with a plurality of holes for receiving pills, a door positioned beneath said holes, and a funnel positioned beneath said door and extending downwardly for receiving the counted pills after the door has been opened.

This invention relates to an improved pill counter, and in particular, to a portable pill counter which can be conveniently used by a doctor in his office to count pills quickly and dispense the counted pills into a container.

In the past, pills have frequently been counted by hand with the result that valuable time was lost by this slow process, pills were sometimes touched by the ingers, or the pills were inaccurately counted. The hand counting of pills is time consuming, inaccurate at times, and possibly unsanit-ary if the pills are touched.

IOne of the principal objects of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive, sanitary and portable pill counter which can be used conveniently by a doctor in his office. Another object is to provide a portable pill counter having a replaceable upper bottom to permit the counting of any desired number of pills of any desired size. Another object is to provide a pill counter in which a quantity of pills may be shaken over a plurality of holes until one pill is in each hole, and thereafter a door can be moved to allow the pills to fall through said holes and into a funnel from which they can be directed into a bottle. Another object is to provide a device in which the Imovable means under the holes moves within the funnel. Another object is to provide an upper 4bottom which can be conveniently replaced with a different upper -bottom having a different number of holes or different sizes of holes to accommodate pills of different sizes. Another object is to provide a funnel which can be conveniently removed and replaced to permit cleaning of the pill counter and/or disassembly of the upper bottom.

These and other objects and advantages will become apparent hereinafter.

The present invention is embodied in a portable pill counter comprising a container having a bottom with an upstanding wall, said bottom having an opening therein with a door normally biased to close said opening, a replaceable upper bottom positioned above said bottom, said upper bottom having a plurality of holes therein, each of said holes adapted to receive a pill, said holes being positioned directly above said door, a funnel positioned beneath said vbottom for receiving said pills from said holes when said door is opened, said funnel having a small bottom opening adapted to be placed over a pill bottle.

The invention also consists in the parts and in the arrangements and combinations of parts hereinafter described and claimed. In the accompanying drawings which form part of this specification wherein like numerals and letters refer to like parts wherever they occur:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a portable pill counter embodying the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, partly is cross-section along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1, of said pill counter,

FIG. 3 is an end view of said pill counter showing the handle,

3,402,827 Patented Sept. 24, 1968 FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the handle and trigger removed from the pill counter, and

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of the funnel after it has been removed from the pill counter.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, it will be seen that the embodiment of the invention which has been illustrated comprises a portable pill counter C comprising a container or tray 1 having a bottom wall 2 and an upstanding circumscribing wall 3 comprising a shallow rear wall 4, a relatively high front wall 5, and sloping side walls 6 and 7 therebetween to completely circumscribe said bottom wall 2. The bottom wall 2 has an opening 8 positioned at the shallow end 9 of the tray 1 near the rear wall 4. A trap door 10 is positioned within the plane of bottom wall 2 and closes the opening 8. The bottom wall 2 has a boss 11 thereon and means, such as a hole 12, for removably fastening an upper bottom 13 thereto.

The upper bottom 13 is similar in shape to the bottom wall 2 so that the upper bottom 13 covers the entire area within the circumscribing wall 3 of the tray 1. The upper bottom 13 is preferably made of clear plastic material, although any suitable material can be used, and is preferably only as thick as the pills to be counted. The upper bottom 13 has a pill counting section 14 comprising a plurality of holes 15 positioned above the door 10A in said bottom wall 2. Any number of holes 15, as desired, may be used, but four rows of seven holes each is preferred because many pills are prescribed to be taken four times a day for seven days. The upper bottom 13 is provided with fastening means, such as a hole 16, which allows it to be secured to the bottom wall 2 by means of a single fastener, such as the screw 17 and nut 18 which holds the two bottoms together. The forward portion 19 of the upper bottom 13 near the high wall 5 forms a reservoir portion 20 for the excess pills which have not fallen into any of the holes 15.

The rear wall 4 is provided with a handle 21 secured thereto by means of a flange 22 which is bolted or adhesively secured to the rear wall 4. The flange 22 has downwardly extending lugs 23 which receive a transverse pin 24 with a trigger 25 and extension 26 mounted thereon. The extension 26 is secured to the bottom of the trap door 10, which is held in closed position parallel to the bottom wall 2 by means of a spring 27 around said pin 24 and contacting said extension 26 so as to normally bias the trap door 10 to its closed position and the trigger 25 to its downward position.

A removable funnel 28 having sloping walls 29 with .a bottom opening 30 is secured to the bottom wall 2 of the counter C. The funnel 28 is secured to the tray 1 at its rear or counting portion 14 by means of a rear lip 31 which extends above a shoulder 32 on the handle 21. The funnel 28 is secured along its front portion 33 by means `of a single securing means, such as a nut 34 which is screwed onto a screw 35 mounted in the boss 11, which screw 35 extends through the hole 36 in the funnel 28. The funnel 28 is dimensioned so that its top portion 37 is larger than and completely circumscribes the pill counting section 14 and the trap door 10, so that when the door 10 is pivoted downwardly, the door 10 and all pills within the holes 15 fall into the funnel 28 and are free to fall downwardly on the sloping walls 29 through the bottom opening 30 which has previously been placed over a pill bottle or pill container.

In operation, a doctor or user of the present portable pill counter C inserts the desired upper bottom 13 in its assembled position in contacting relation on the top surface of the bottom wall 2. The upper bottom 13 may have any desired number of holes 15, each of which should be slightly larger than the diameter of the pills to be counted so that only one pill can be received in each hole 15. The trap door is normally biased by the spring 27 to its horizontal position within the plane of the bottom wall 2 to close the opening 8 and provide a resting surface for the counted pills. In order to count a desired number of pills, a large bottle of pills, e.g., one hundred or a thousand in number, is poured into the tray 1 of the counter C. The user grasps the counter C by the handle 21, lowers the rear wall 4 so that the pills slide over the pill counting section 14 toward the rear wall 4, thereby causing one pill to drop into each hole 15. The counter C is then pivoted forwardly so that the Pills move by gravity toward the reservoir portion adjacent to the front wall 5. This usually results in one pill falling into each hole 15, but if all holes 15 are not filled, the pivoting motion causing the pills to move first toward the rear wall 4 and then the front wall 5 is again repeated until each hole 15 has one pill therein. Once a pill is in a hole 15, the hole is completely filled and does not catch or retain a second pill. When each hole 15 has one pille therein, the trigger is pulled toward the handle 21 thereby moving the trap door 10 downwardly against the action of the spring 27 and causing each pill within each hole 15 to fall from its hole 15 within the upper bottom 13 into the funnel 28 and then out through the bottom opening 30 into a ypill bottle or pill box.

Preferably, a weeks supply of pills is counted, dispensed, and placed within a small container for the patient, all in one simple operation. However', if an equal additional number of pills are required, the entire process is then repeated. When the desired number of pills have been counted, the pills remaining in the reservoir portion 20 of the tray 1 are simply poured from a corner adjacent to the front wall 5 back into the larger master container from which they were initially poured into the counter C.

In practice, the funnel 28 may be removed by simply removing the nut 34, moving the funnel 28 downwardly and forwardly to move the hole 36 over the screw 35 and to disengage the rear lip 31 from the shoulder 32 of the handle 21. This allows the funnel 28 to be cleaned, if necessary, and exposes the nut 1S and screw 17 which comprise the fastener which holds the upper bottom 13 to the bottom wall 2 and which must be removed if a different upper bottom 13 is desired. When the nut 18 and screw 1'7 have been replaced, the funnel 28 is attached by placing the rear lip 31 in the slot 38 above the shoulder 32 and below the bottom wall 2 until the hole 36 passes over the screw 35 in the boss 11, at which time the nut 34 is threaded onto the screw 35 by hand, thereby holding the funnel 28 in xed position.

The tray 1 is preferably made from light plastic material, although any suitable material such as metal, paperboard or other material can be used if desired. The counter C is portable and small so that it can be stored with ease when it is not in use for counting pills. The tray 1 is shown in rectangular form but the circumscribing wall 3 may be circular or elliptical in shape if desired. The circumscribing wall 3 may have a small outwardly extending flange along the top thereof if desired.

As used herein the term pi.l shall include pills, which may be of circular shape of or other geometric shapes, and shall include capsules. The openings 15 in the upper bottom 13 should conform in shape to the shape of the pill, which includes capsules, and be slightly larger to permit the same to fall into the openings 15 easily upon mere passing over said openings by the manipulation of the operator.

This invention is intended to cover all changes and modifications of the example of the invention herein chosen for purposes of the disclosure, which do not constitute departures from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A pill counter comprising a tray having a bottom with an upstanding wall, said bottom having an opening therein, a door mounted on said counternormally closing said opening, a replaceable upper bottom positioned above said bottom, said upper bottom having a plurality of holes therein positioned above said opening in said bottom, each of said holes adapted to receive a pill, said holes being positioned directly above said door, a funnel positioned beneath said bottom and extending downwardly therefrom for receiving said pills from said holes when said door is opened, said funnel having a small bottom opening adapted to be placed over a pill bottle.

2. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein said upper bottom is adapted to be removed and replaced with another upper bottom having holes which are different in size and number than the holes in said rst upper bottom.

3. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein the counter is in the form of a tray having a shallow wall and a handle at one end adjacent to said door and a deep wall and excess pill reservoir at the other end of said bottom and remote from said door.

4. The pill counter set forth in claim 3 wherein said deep wall and the high portion of the sloping side walls form a reservoir for the excess pills which have not fallen within the holes so as to be counted.

5. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein said door is normally positioned within the plane of and forms part of the bottom and the upper bottom is substantially the same thickness as the thickness of the pills to be counted.

`6. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein said handle has a trigger for opening said door, said trigger being mounted on a pin, and means mounted on said counter for normally biasing said door to its closed position within the plane of the bottom wall, said trigger upon actuation being adapted to move the door out of the plane of said bottom.

7. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein the pills which fall into the holes in said upper bottom rest directly upon the upper surface of said movable door.

8. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein said upper bottom can be changed by releasing a' single fastening means which connects the upper bottom and said bottom.

9. The pill counter as set forth in claim 1 wherein said funnel is positioned directly beneath said bottom substantially perpendicularly thereto and is adapted to receive said door in its open position and receives a'll of said pills which have been counted and directs said pills into the small opening in the bottom of the funnel,

10. The pill counter set forth in claim 1 wherein said funnel is adapted to be removed from said counter upon release of one fastening means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,202 6/ 1839 Peters.

FOREIGN PATENTS 19,326 9/ 1908 Great Britain. 242,049 8/ 1947 Switzerland.

ROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner.

F. E. WERNER, Assistant Examiner. 

